Illustration & Advertising Art

At the turn of the 20th century, Industrial Revolution inventions brought technological advancements to printmaking that ushered in a Golden Age of American illustration. Publishers and calendar companies developed new techniques for producing multi-color offset lithographs that were fast, affordable, and flat-out glorious to view, blurring the distinction between fine art and "art for commerce." The best examples by the finest commercial illustrators were revered by the public, and today are beloved by collectors.

Grapefruit Moon Gallery just unearthed a small collection of original Campbell’s Soup Kids illustrations. These appeared as print ads in countless American mainstream publications such as The Saturday Evening Post in the 1930s. In this offering a Dolly Dingle-type Campbell’s Soup Kid puts her doll to bed. Accompanying text reads; “Not a drop of Campbell’s left upon her spoon, So the good old sand man’s Coming mighty soon!” Nicely matted and framed behind glass with typewritten caption window.

Sand Man’s Coming Soon

Artist: School of Grace Drayton

One of the more surreal takes on the 1929 stock market crash which led to the Great Depression is on view in this October 1930 Campbell’s Soup advertisement which appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. A Campbell’s Soup Kid reads the latest stock news from a state of the art glass domed stock ticker machine. Wishful text reads “The news that I’m reading look’s dandy to me. Like a plateful of Campbell’s Which fills me with glee.” This original illustration painting is a supremely odd example of Americana advertising.

Dandy To Me

Artist: School of Grace Drayton

A stiring and patriotic moving World War I era original illustration by noted American illustrator C. Clyde Squires (1883-1970) who was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1883. His work was published in Western Romances, LIFE, and Womans Home Companion. Signed lower right “C. Clyde Squires.” Measures 17 x 24 inches unframed, framed 18 1/2 x 25 1/2 inches. Painted on artist’s board, very good condition, framed behind glass.

Meeting The Kind Nurse

Artist: C. Clyde Squires

Dating to the 1950s, this Mid-Century Modern original advertising illustration features a young, stylish, and well-to-do couple looking at travel posters and pondering their next destination. The African masks and tribal Zuni Fetish Doll on the mantle as well as the hanging modernist abstract art let the consumer know that this couple is sophisticated and well-traveled. A […]

Where To?

Artist: Richard Preyer

Harold McCauley created this historical Revolutionary War image of a Minuteman using coded communication to alert the Colonial forces of British troop movement as cover art for the May/June 1975 issue of Signal magazine, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) trade publication. AFCEA is a non-profit group which emerged from the Signal Corp after World War II that serves the information […]

Signal

Artist: Harold McCauley

Using an inventive pointillism technique, Henry J. Soulen creates a moody and evocative artwork in an American impressionist style in this dramatic painting. This was likely featured as an interior illustration for The Saturday Evening Post. Known for his Orientalist exotic aesthetic, Soulen was an early student of Howard Pyle, he utilized a heavy expressive brush strokes and impasto oil paint technique. The scene features a masked bandit readying himself to duel for the honor of the lovely Edwardian attired maiden.

The Duel

Artist: Henry Soulen

An inventive early offering by the noted industrial designer Paul Ritter MacAlister, who went on to be an interior designer especially noted for his mass-produced “Plan-a-Room” kit with scale furniture and room layouts that could be used to plan and organize home spaces for consumers. This is a very well executed work it is done in the style of Erte essentially and features an art deco nude goddess of the darkness cowering under the bright sunshine radiating from the corner of the canvas – superimposed with a pipe smoking skeleton in a trompe l’oeil “trick of the eye” manner.

Spain, 1929

Artist: Paul MacAlister

[wp_paypal button=”buynow” name=”The Mayan Room by Cardwell Higgins” amount=”2500.00″ no_shipping=”2″ quantity=”1″ return=”https://grapefruitmoongallery.com/thank-you-for-your-order” cancel_return=”https://grapefruitmoongallery.com/your-order-was-not-processed” button_image=”https://grapefruitmoongallery.com/wp-content/buy-now.png” target=”blank”] Restaurant Mayan This large Mayan themed stylized gouache illustration on board was created by Cardwell Higgins as a menu design and brochure cover for Rockefeller Center’s innovative Restaurant Mayan, 16 West 51st. Street, New York. A brochure printed for the […]

The Mayan Room

Artist: Cardwell Higgins

A remarkable, large, signed and dated 1929 oil painting by one of the leading “cabin art” calendar artists Frank Stick. Known best for his genre illustrations for the Thomas D. Murphy Calendar Company, Stick also worked for many early 20th century magazine titles including Collier’s, Sports Afield and The Saturday Evening Post creating rugged outdoorsman scenes culled from his own experiences. This is a unique offering by the artist, featuring a pretty Pre-Raphaelite Viking mother and her newborn child emerging from a long winter, a cherished example from the Charles Martignette collection.

A Viking Mother

Artist: Frank Stick

A whimsical and stylized rare original gouache painting on illustration board by Anne Harriet Sefton a.k.a. Fish; this was the cover for The April 1919 edition of Vanity Fair Magazine published by Conde Nast. Work is in the humorous yet refined swinging youth style that came to personify the art deco Jazz Age. Painting is silk matted and beautifully framed in a period antique gold gilt wood frame under glass.

The Gondola Ride

Artist: Anne Harriet Fish

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